OK, this is a sequel, and it is not a great sequel, we agree on that. But is it THAT bad? It has ratings far below worse movies in the same genre.
Let's look at the "right" it does:
ONE VILLAIN. Just like Speed, but also like Dirty Harry, Alien and Predator, it focuses on a SINGLE villain. That is a great idea. No faceless target villains thrown in for some cheap action, focus on one.
BIG CHANGES WHEN MAKING A SEQUEL: Bigger, but also different! It worked for Aliens, Die Hard 2 and Predator 2!
IMPRESSIVE SPECIAL EFFECTS: This movie has spectacular specials! I had to wonder how much was real and how much was models.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO FIGHT VILLAINS TO GET ACTION: In much of the action, the heroes are fighting the environment and not the villain.
COMIC SIDEKICKS: There are some characters that clearly are intended to be funny. (No, they were not very funny but they tried... a bit.)
SAVE THE KIDS: We care about kids. Just think about Aliens. (That is part of why we hated when Newt was written out of Alien 3. We loved to see her making it.) This is clearly included here, and the deaf girl idea is pretty nice.
This doesn't look like a bad sequel at all, not on paper. Obviously it went wrong, it flopped. Why? I think it is bad timing, uninteresting dialogue, uninteresting romantic side story, weak directing... So all the good things just weren't assembled to a great whole.
But I can list a couple of much, much worse action movies with much better ratings, movies that left me with a stronger feeling of wasted time and dull plot, B- movies on AAA budget, just like this.
So did I waste my time? Well, I certainly could have watched a better movie, but it was not a rating 1 movie. Just another dull popcorn movie. A typical movie for a rating at 4-6 somewhere.
Let's look at the "right" it does:
ONE VILLAIN. Just like Speed, but also like Dirty Harry, Alien and Predator, it focuses on a SINGLE villain. That is a great idea. No faceless target villains thrown in for some cheap action, focus on one.
BIG CHANGES WHEN MAKING A SEQUEL: Bigger, but also different! It worked for Aliens, Die Hard 2 and Predator 2!
IMPRESSIVE SPECIAL EFFECTS: This movie has spectacular specials! I had to wonder how much was real and how much was models.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO FIGHT VILLAINS TO GET ACTION: In much of the action, the heroes are fighting the environment and not the villain.
COMIC SIDEKICKS: There are some characters that clearly are intended to be funny. (No, they were not very funny but they tried... a bit.)
SAVE THE KIDS: We care about kids. Just think about Aliens. (That is part of why we hated when Newt was written out of Alien 3. We loved to see her making it.) This is clearly included here, and the deaf girl idea is pretty nice.
This doesn't look like a bad sequel at all, not on paper. Obviously it went wrong, it flopped. Why? I think it is bad timing, uninteresting dialogue, uninteresting romantic side story, weak directing... So all the good things just weren't assembled to a great whole.
But I can list a couple of much, much worse action movies with much better ratings, movies that left me with a stronger feeling of wasted time and dull plot, B- movies on AAA budget, just like this.
So did I waste my time? Well, I certainly could have watched a better movie, but it was not a rating 1 movie. Just another dull popcorn movie. A typical movie for a rating at 4-6 somewhere.